Semon Advent 2, Ngaio Union Church, 6 Dec 2015

Semon Advent 2, Ngaio Union Church, 6 Dec 2015

By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, 79to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Luke 1: 78-79

The beginning of Luke’s gospel foretells the birth of John the Baptist. The story is told through the eyes of the priest Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth.

Zechariah was offering incense at the temple and an angel - the word we translate from the Greek word which can also be translated as messenger - anangel appeared to him. Zechariah learns that Elizabeth his wife is pregnant and will bear a son, and they are to name him John. After this experience Zechariah loses his speech.

Eight days after the baby is born, they take him to be circumcised, and they give a tablet to Zechariah asking him to write what name he wanted, and at that point his speech returns. The ecstatic experience in the temple rendered him speechless, but once it came to naming his son, his voice returned. This son was destined to preach and prepare the way for another.

The people who witnessed this were amazed and asked this profound question as found inverse 66:

All who heard pondered … said: What will this child become?

Our world is crying out for leadership to attend to what seems to be intractable cycles. The cycle of one war leading to another, the cycle of war displacing innocent civilians who become refugees, and the cycle of impoverished and brutalised young people becoming suicide bombers and the like for the next battle. When people are desperate they have nothing to lose.

At the time of the birth of John the Baptist, the Roman empire was in charge and it was as just as brutal and just as controlling as the empires of today’s corporations and big nations. However we will see that there is an alternative to fighting the empire through violence and brutality, and to divertthe cycles of one feeding into another.

it is found in Zechariah’s prophecy, from which comes the text I have chosen to highlight this morning.

By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, 79to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Luke 1: 78-79

We learn later that John the Baptist has a message of the good news, but he himself is simply a messenger who points the way to Jesus.

Being a messenger can often be a risky business. We have the phrase "shooting the messenger" which refers to how the Emperor can respond when receiving bad news. As it turns out, that was later to be the fate of John the Baptist before Herod.

It is a well known tactic to attack the messenger. This denunciation of messengers is done using violent language. It is the language of war.

In the USA the leading Republican Presidential candidate Is following the tactic of attack, attack, attack. The Deputy Prime Minister for Christchurch used the tactic this week to attack a Treasury report informing us that the Christchurch rebuild was not on track. And our Prime Minister when challenged about the human rights of NZ’ers in prison in Australia simply attacked the messengers. That was the incident which saw a group of women MP’s from the opposition parties, walk out of Parliament. I have listened to lots of fiery political debate and the colourful rhetoric used to describe opponents. But I’m wondering whether this has reached a new level.

The tactic is an ancient one. You simply pour scorn on the person who is from another party. If you do not want people to listen to the message, attack the messenger.

It doesn’t seem to matter whether you stick to the truth. I’m wondering if that is the new dimension in this level of rhetoric.

In religion the message and the messenger are connected. The message is tied up with the messenger. To believe in the message, you believe in the person who brings the message. The message is embodied in the messenger. A true leader is one who lives and embodies the message that they preach.

Now the message of John the Baptist and then Jesus did challenge the authorities. The Emperor’s kingdom was the arena of war. John the Baptist and Jesus spoke of peace.

To be the Emperor requires winning a war. And in order for the Emperor to survive, he needs to be continually at war, or ready to go to war. It leads however to a different set of values and behaviours than the arena of peace. The kingdom of heaven is an arena of peace.

I have printed off two columns which contrast these domains.

The good news is a call to think about living our lives by a different set of values than the values of war. The early church saw this as the beginning of a new age.

Now you will see that living to the values of the kingdom of God is a very challenging and demanding task. Our world at the moment is calling for leadership which has a message of hope and peace.

The candle of peace that we lit this morning is a symbol of the challenge before us. As we come to Christmas, may the challenge of the candle of peace be light for our world and light in our lives.

John Howell

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